Cayden
“Darlia!” Fuck. This whole moment is fucked.
I wanted to tell her everything when I knew she could fucking handle it. But no, Marcus had to ruin that. The moment she shut me down about Olivia, I knew she wasn’t ready to hear the truth, and especially not after last night.
“Let go of me!” I growl, trying to fight back against the guards holding me down. I need to run to Darlia, to comfort her and make her see the truth, but I fucking can’t. The guards’ grip on me is too tight, three against one is hardly fucking fair.
“Don’t take her. I’ll do anything, take me instead. Don’t take her, let her live.”
“We both know that’s not happening, Mr Ashford,” the Overseer says. He’s sat in my fucking chair, his arms on my desk, and the prick just drugged my girl.
Anger unlike anything I’ve ever felt before is vibrating through every inch of my body. My blood pulsing in my veins as I try to fight off these fucking guards. I am going to kill them all slowly, painfully. I want to rip every limb from his body and watch him suffer slowly for everything he’s put Darlia through.
“I don’t care, just let her go. I’ll do anything.” Every carefully constructed mask comes crumbling down, all for Darlia. I should’ve just told Darlia everything. Maybe if I told her, she would’ve understood and we wouldn’t be here right now. I could’ve gotten her out of the northern province.
I could’ve gotten her off new order territory entirely.
I want Darlia to be safe, protected, just like I promised her. Fuck, this looks so bad. She’s never going to trust me again.
Trying to inch my fingers towards the gun in my waistband of my sweatpants, I barely move an inch before the fucker’s grip tightens on my arm. “Send her to a re-education site, make her forget him.”
No.
My stomach drops, fear running through me. Re-education sites…nobody knows the exact horrors that happen in those rooms. But it’s not hard to imagine considering a usual punishment is being strapped down to a chair and being tortured until you break or collapse.
No fucking way was I letting that happen.
Kicking my legs up, I use the momentum and shock factor to get myself up. Two of the soldiers holding me loosen their grip momentarily, not expecting me to fight back so aggressively. I elbow one of the guards as hard as I can, breaking his nose in the process.
One doesn’t loosen his grip like I predicted, dislocating my shoulder. Fuck. That’s not a problem for right now.
Pulling my gun out from the holster, I shoot all three of the guards before turning around to see the Overseer pointing a gun directly at Darlia.
“You won’t kill her,” I call his bluff, only because I believe it. The Academy is many things, but they aren’t stupid. They won’t kill their best agent; not like this, anyway. My voice is confident. I know he won’t, they need her.
What they don’t need is a rebel, someone who knows too much. They may do something to her to make her obedient, but it won’t be death. At that point, she will wish they just killed her. Darlia has survived the chair, but a re-education site? Everyone has their limits.
“She won’t just forget everything I’ve shown her, you will never get her back.”
“I like my chances.”
My shoulder is killing me, throbbing in pain and unusable, begging to be put back in place. It’s low on the priority list right now. Right now, Darlia is all that matters.
“Let her stay, and I swear I’ll stop everything, I won’t help anyone else. Just let her and Bella go. You’ll never see me again.” Darlia would never forgive me if I didn’t include Bella in the deal. I, however, would sleep just fine knowing only she was safe. But I can’t give her any other reason to hate me right now.
“Mathias. I will stop everything, just let her go.” I use his name, his real name. Darlia doesn’t know it, and I never told her because the brave girl already has enough of my secrets, but I want him to know how much I know.
What’s the saying? Don’t bite the hand that feeds you? This fucker doesn’t seem to understand that as soon as I have two working arms again, I am going to tear him limb from limb until he’s nothing but a pile of mush.
Mathias falters, his mask of confidence slipping for a moment as he considers the deal: two girls, and in exchange no more rebels, no more attacks on their warehouses, no more underground networks. I’ll shut it all down. Or at least I’ll tell him I will.
“Get her to the re-education site. And shoot him.”
Without thinking, I pull the trigger, the bullet hitting his shoulder. Mathias’s eyes burn into me with a fury I pray Darlia has never seen, but right now all rational thought is out the window.
“Let. Her. Go.” He looks at me, assessing again, before raising his gun and shooting me in the leg.
Motherfucker.
